Bachmann: Muslim Brotherhood Infiltrating Obama Administration

Rep. Michele Bachmann is raising questions about possible ties between the family of a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Muslim Brotherhood, the St. Cloud Times reported, and called for a probe of potential Muslim Brotherhood infiltration into the Obama administration.

Bachmann, a member of the House intelligence committee and former Republican presidential candidate, is asking how Huma Abedin, deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and wife of former New York congressman Anthony Weiner, received State Department security clearance despite three members of Abedin’s family having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, an international Islamist group that recently came to power in Egypt, the Times reported.

Bachmann says Abedin’s job gives her routine access to Clinton, and says the State Department has taken recent actions “that have been enormously favorable to the Muslim Brotherhood and its interests,” according to the Times.

The Minnesota congresswoman’s claims are documented in a 16-page response letter to Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who called for Bachmann and four other Republican lawmakers to back up the information on which she based a request for federal investigations into whether the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the U.S. government, the Times reported.

Bachmann said she relied partially on court documents from the Holy Land Foundation for Relief trials, whose members were convicted of funneling money to Hamas. In the letter, Bachmann also expressed concern about reports that an Egyptian lawmaker allegedly tied to a terrorist group received a State Department visa and met with Obama administration officials last month, the Times reported.

Bachmann said she never accused Abedin of working on behalf of the Brotherhood but questions how Abedin obtained a State Department security clearance, the Times reported.

“I am particularly interested in exactly how, given what we know from the international media about Ms. Abedin’s documented family connections with the extremist Muslim Brotherhood, she was able to avoid being disqualified for a security clearance,” Bachmann wrote, according to the paper.